Free activity book for teaching children Spanish

This is a free book of fun and practical activities for teaching children Spanish. ¡Aprendo jugando! Actividades de Español para niños y niñas de 6 a 9 años (I Learn by Playing! Spanish Activities for Boys and Girls from 6 to 9) is available to download in PDF format so that you can make copies of the activities and games. Teachers in Spain, with the support of the Spanish government, created the materials to use with students whose first language is not Spanish – the equivalent of materials that would be used in ESOL classrooms in the United States. The target age for these activities is six to nine, but many of the materials can be used for teaching children Spanish in upper elementary grades.  Scroll down to the bottom of the article and click on the PDF icon to download the book.

Each of the units includes objectives, detailed lesson plans (in Spanish) and the handouts you need for teaching children Spanish. The activities are engaging, and the handouts have clear drawings and bright colors.  There are 110 pages in the book, so you might want to choose selected pages to print.

These are the units and the main concepts in ¡Aprendo jugando! Actividades de Español para niños y niñas de 6 a 9 años.

1. El alfabeto / The alphabet (letters, distinguishing between consonants and vowels)
2. Yo me llamo  / My name is…(introducing yourself, asking someone’s name)
3. ¿Me prestas la goma?  / Will you loan me your eraser?  (common classroom phrases)
4. Aprendemos los números  / Learning numbers (numbers)
5. ¿Puedo hablar? / Can I talk? (asking and giving permission, poder + infinitive, common actions and places)
6. La canción de los colores  / The color song (colors, adjective agreement)
7. Hoy somos frutas  / Today we are fruit (fruit, shapes, colors, taste – sweet, sour, etc)
8. Estoy feliz / I’m happy (feelings, present tense of estar and tener)
9. La familia, mi familia  (family, practice with tener, practice with me llamo/se llama)
10. Nuestra mascota  / Our pet (animals, parts of the body, possessives)
11. ¿Dónde está nuestra mascota? / Where is our pet? (prepositions, questions, estar)
12. Describe el juego / Describe the game  (describing, game vocabulary, ser, estar and hay in the present tense)
13. Me gusta – no me gusta / I like it- I don’t like it (the verb gustar)
14. Mis personajes favoritos / My favorite characters (describing people, the verbs ser, estar, tener, llevar in the yo and tú forms)
15. Nuestro calendario / Our calendar (months of the year, days of the week)
16. Las estaciones del año y la ropa / Seasons of the year and clothes (seasons, weather, clothes, the verbs llevar and ponerse, sentences with cuando)
17. ¿Para qué sirve? / What is it used for? (common household objects)
18. El trivial de la clase / Classroom trivia (review)
19. ¿Cómo seguimos? / What’s next? (practice listening comprehension, speaking skills)
20. El árbol de las palabras / Word tree (review)